


The Soul Is Healed by Being With Children.

by CristinaBlackthornKingson



Category: Arc of a Scythe Series - Neal Shusterman
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Babysitting, Childbirth, Death, Death in Childbirth, F/M, Family, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Death in Childbirth, Minor Character Death, Other, Team as Family, Toddlers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:10:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26390149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CristinaBlackthornKingson/pseuds/CristinaBlackthornKingson
Summary: When Scythe Faraday gleans a single mother, it is soon discovered that the child's only other family member is on the other side of the world, Scythe Faraday takes it upon himself to care for the child for the day it takes her Aunt to reach Midmerica. How will Faraday fare with looking after a toddler?
Relationships: Rowan Damisch & Citra Terranova, Rowan Damisch & Scythe Faraday, Scythe Curie/Scythe Faraday (Arc of a Scythe), Scythe Faraday & Citra Terranova
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	The Soul Is Healed by Being With Children.

It is a cool Autumn day in the year of The Ocelot, when Honorable Scythe Michael Faraday completes his final gleaning of the week, the gleaning of a woman named Elizabeth Summers. He had chosen Elizabeth because a year and a half ago she gave birth to a daughter, and in the mortal ages it was not uncommon for people to die in or after childbirth. Scythe Faraday had selected Elizabeth for gleaning over a year ago, when her child was just days old, but until now he has never been able to bring himself to follow through on the gleaning.

It had been a quick and painless death for Elizabeth, he had selected a poison for her, that simply needed to be added to water, one sip and the person would be gone. It was a much kinder death than the hemorrhage she likely would have died from in the mortal years.

Regardless, this was one of Scythe Faraday’s most difficult gleanings, and he feels as though he needs to go a bit above and beyond for Elizabeth and her family.

“Citra.” Faraday calmly says. “I want you to make sure that the rest of the house is neat and tidy, presentable for Ms. Summers' family, when they arrive back.” Faraday calmly says. He knows from his research that Elizabeth is a single mother, with only a sister in Australia, but he assumes she also has friends who help out with her daughter, and he does not want them coming back to the news that Elizabeth was gleaned, as well as the house a mess. 

“Yes Your Honor.” Citra quietly says, understanding Faraday’s guilt and pain, gleaning is never easy for him, but when he makes painful choices to glean people such as parents, it’s even worse.

Citra makes her way down the hall to make sure everything there is clean and tidy. As she is straightening out some picture frames on the display table outside one of the rooms, she hears a noise coming from the room in front of her, a noise that sounds almost like a person. She freezes, but the noise stops. She is about to wave it off as the wind, when the noise comes again, louder this time.

Gathering up all her courage and taking a deep breath, Citra opens the door to the room and steps in. What she sees when she steps in, is completely unbelievable. 

Just a few feet in front of her, stands a brown wooden crib with a white mattress and light pink sheets. Sitting up in the crib, is a baby, who by Citra’s guess is about one and a half. 

Her hand flys up to her mouth while it slowly dawns on her that this must be Ms. Summers' child. Citra takes her hands away from her mouth, turns toward the open door and shouts

“Scythe Faraday! Rowan! Come quickly!” She soon hears hurried footsteps and seconds later Scythe Faraday is in front of her with Rowan only seconds behind her. 

“What’s going on?” Scythe Faraday asks, placing a worried hand on Citra’s arm, looking her over for any sign of harm, was someone else here and has now tried to harm Citra for allowing Elizabeth to be gleaned? 

“I... look.” Is all Citra can manage say, stepping back from Scythe Faraday and turning back towards the crib, where the baby is now looking at them all curiously. 

“Holy shit!” Rowan exclaims. “Is that Ms. Summers' kid?!” 

“I assume so.” Citra says with a shrug. 

“Scythe Faraday, did you know the baby would be here?” Rowan asks, turning to look at his mentor, who has been shocked into silence. 

“No, of course not I would never glean somebody when there is a small child to witness it. I assumed the child would be in daycare, especially when Ms. Summers' never mentioned her, before I gleaned her.” Faraday says, running a hand through his hair, as he often does when stressed. 

“Does she have any family that the baby can go to?” Rowan asks Scythe Faraday, afraid that they’ve just left his baby to be raised by The Thunderhead. 

“Yes, Ms. Summers' has a sister but she lives in Australia. You two stay here, I need to contact Ms. Summers' sister.”

Just as Scythe Faraday leaves, the baby starts to get fussy and lets out a few cries, alarming Citra and Rowan. Citra is the one to step forward and approach the baby, smiling down at her in her crib. 

“Hello there.” Citra says in a quiet and soft tone. “It’s okay, you don’t need to cry, you’re safe I promise. Aren’t you just the cutest little thing, huh?” She runs a hand over the baby’s thick black hair, which makes her smile, revealing two small top teeth, two small bottom teeth and a lot of gums.

Just then, Citra notices a blanket in the crib and catches a glimpse of the name ‘Lucy’ embroidered on the blanket, with gold thread. 

“Lucy, huh? Is that your name sweetheart?” Upon hearing the name Lucy, the baby immediately perks up and smiles even wider. She then reaches up for Citra to lift her. Citra reaches down and picks the baby (or rather, Lucy as they should call her now.) up, settling her on her hip as Lucy wraps her arms around her neck, squeezing tightly, trying to hug her new friend.

Just as Citra turns to face Rowan again, with Lucy in her arms, Scythe Faraday steps into the room. 

“I’ve spoken with Ms. Summers' sister, Alex. She is more than willing to take the child in, but it will take her at least 16 hours to get here from Australia.” He calmly tells them.

“So what do we do with Lucy then? Who’s going to take care of her until her Aunt gets here?” Rowan asks. Scythe Faraday sighs and once again runs a hand through his hair.

“I am the one who left her without her mother, so therefore I should be the one to care for her over the next 16 hours or so, we will take her home with us and look after her until her Aunt gets here.” Citra and Rowan certainly were not expecting him to say that, they could never picture Scythe Faraday tending to a toddler. 

“Not to be rude, Your Honor, but do you know anything about kids?” Rowan asks, looking between his mentor and Lucy. 

“Not a lot, it’s been quite some time since I looked after my nieces and nephews, but I know that you Rowan, come from a large family with many younger brothers and sisters, I know your youngest brother is only 6 months old, and you have twin siblings who are 1, and Citra I have met your brother, I have seen how you two interact, you both clearly know at least something about children, so I will be needing your help in looking after this little one.” 

“Well she can’t be any harder to look after than the twins, they’re not human I swear, they can’t be.” Rowan groans, rolling his eyes as he thinks about his little twin siblings, Phoebe and Henry, who never gave him a moments peace since they were born. 

“You’re so mean, I bet they’re adorable!” Citra protests. 

“You can have them if you want, they’re babies number 23 and 24, no one will notice they’re gone!” Rowan retaliates. Citra is about to reply, when Scythe Faraday holds up a hand to silence them. 

“Enough arguing. We will stay here until the coroner arrives to remove Ms. Summers' body, Rowan I want you to gather up some toys, clothes and diapers for Lucy, Citra I want you to stay here with her and do not allow her to see her mother’s body, under any circumstances.” 

They do exactly that, and 40 minutes later arrive back to Scythe Faraday’ house, Lucy still clinging on to Citra.

Once in the door, Citra sets Lucy down, and while the little girl toddels around, exploring her new location, Rowan, Citra and Faraday take a minute to think of what to do next.

“So.... what do we do now?” Rowan asks.

“Well, when I found her she looked like she just woke up from a nap, so she’ll probably be hungry soon.” Citra replies.

“Do you have anything suitable for a baby to eat, Scythe Faraday?” Rowan asks, turning to look at his mentor. 

“I... don’t know, I’m not sure what children her age usually eat, it’s been so long since I looked after my nieces and nephews, I can’t recall what they would eat.” Faraday replies, still trying to process this whole situation. 

“Well she’s about 18 months, right?” Citra asks, guessing from Lucy’s size, what age she is. Scythe Faraday nods, having found all this information through The Thunderhead. “Well then I think she can have pretty much anything, I remember when Ben was her age he mostly ate what my parents and I were eating, but smaller portions, and he’d have a bottle of milk at night.” 

Rowan pulls out his phone and does a quick Google search on what an 18 month old eats, quickly finding a sample menu on the first page of results. 

“This website has a sample menu for kids her age. It says for lunch we could give her a half a sandwich, a half a cup of cooked vegetables and a half a cup of whole

milk. There’s chicken leftover in the fridge, from dinner last night, we could make her a sandwich with that.” Rowan suggests. Scythe Faraday nods. 

“Yes, that sounds like a suitable meal for her. Rowan, I want you to do the cooking, please, and Citra you and I will watch Lucy.” Faraday instructs. Citra and Rowan agree, and while Faraday and Citra stay in the living room, Rowan heads into the kitchen to start on lunch for Lucy.

“So where will Lucy sleep tonight, since Rowan and I are staying in your spare rooms, and there’s no crib or anything?” Citra asks Faraday, as they sit down on the sofa. Will she or Rowan have to share a bed with Lucy tonight? She can’t imagine sleeping beside a toddler would be very restful. 

“I hadn’t thought of that until you brought it up.” Faraday sighs. He’s silent for a minute, then says “She will sleep in my bed for tonight, and I will take the sofa.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind sleeping on the sofa tonight and giving Lucy my room.” Citra offers, knowing that Faraday likes his routine and sleeping on the sofa will disrupt that. 

“No that’s quite alright Citra, I wish to make this sacrifice for her, after taking her mother from her, it is the least I can do.” Faraday quietly replies, trying not to let the guilt seep in. Gleaning the parent of a young child is always difficult, it never gets easier.

Before Citra can reply, Lucy wobbles her way over to them, stopping in front of Scythe Faraday, resting her hands in his lap and looking up at him curiously. After a second or so, she reaches up for him to lift her, and after a few seconds, he gently and carefully picks her up and settles her onto his lap. Almost immediately Lucy takes an interest in Scythe Faraday’s ring, and starts trying to pull at it. 

“Ah I am afraid this is no toy little one.” Scythe Faraday gently says, carefully and gently prying Lucy’s little hands from the ring, before slipping it off and into a pocket in his robes. “Citra would you find something more suitable for Lucy to play with, please?” He asks, shifting Lucy to a more comfortable position.

“Yes your honor.” Soon Citra finds a stuffed animal toy, a dog specifically, and when she hands it to Lucy the little girls face lights up in delight. 

Lucy turns to look up at Scythe Faraday, and waves the toy around in front of his face. 

“Wow-wow!” Lucy happily exclaims, grinning from ear to ear.

"What’s that, little one?” Faraday asks in a confused tone, not understanding what Lucy is trying to say. 

“I think she’s trying to say ‘bow-wow’ as in a dog, she’s showing you her toy.” Citra explains, remembering how Ben would also call dogs ‘wow-wows’ when he was little.

“Ah I see, and what a fine dog he is, a very good companion, too I hear.” Faraday says with a smile, causing Lucy to giggle, before she turns her attention back to her toy. “I did not realize how good you are with children, Citra, nor how much you know about them.” Faraday calmly comments, noticing Citra smiling fondly at little Lucy.

Citra shrugs and says.

“I remember a lot from when Ben was her age, there’s 9 years between us.” 

“I can tell how much you enjoy having a sibling.”

“Mostly I do, but he can be a total pain the ass sometimes and I’d love nothing more than to trade him for a dog or something. 

One time, a few months ago, Ben convinced me to play catch with him, inside with one of his stuffed animals, and at one point when he threw it to me, it knocked a picture frame off the wall and broke it, he immediately yelled for our parents and told them I broke it.” Citra replies, scowling as she remembers arguing with Ben over who broke the picture frame. 

Faraday chuckles, just as Rowan walks in and tells them lunch is ready.

Since they don’t have a high-chair for Lucy, Scythe Faraday tries to get her to sit on a chair pulled out from the table, but she’s refusing to let go of him, so in the end he ends up sitting at the table with Lucy in his lap, as Citra feeds Lucy her lunch.

After lunch, Lucy seems to have found a new burst of energy and is eager to explore more and play. 

When Faraday sets her down in the living room she makes a beeline for the sofa, clambering up and starting to bounce up and down. 

“I don’t think that’s a great idea Lucy.” Rowan warns, reaching out to lift her off the sofa, but before he does, Faraday stops him. 

“No, it’s alright let her, I can replace my sofa cushions but I cannot replace her joy.” Citra and Rowan share a shocked look for a few seconds, before Rowan shrugs and holds Lucy’s little hands while she jumps, so she doesn’t fall and end up needing a trip to the revival center. 

She grows bored of the bouncing after a few minutes, and empties her bag of toys out onto the floor in front of her, grabbing at another stuffed animal as well as a large, bulky toy phone that has large colorful buttons with numbers on them, that light up when pressed. 

Lucy happily amuses herself with her stuffed toys and her pretend phone for an hour, before grabbing a book from her little bag and taking to Rowan to read for her, and he’s happy to, until she asks him to read it again, and again, and again, in total he ends up reading the same 10 page book 10 times, and is certain Lucy would have happily had him read more had he not instead suggested she play some kid friendly games on his phone.

Lucy finds many more ways to entertain herself before dinner, where it’s discovered that she is in fact a typical toddler and a very messy eater. 

After that they only have to entertain Lucy for a few more hours before it’s time to get her ready for bed. 

Citra is put in charge of changing Lucy into her pyjamas, while Rowan is charged with making her a warm bottle of milk. 

As it turns out Lucy is also very wriggly and squirmy, so it’s quite a challenge for Citra to change her, but after about 20 minutes she finally manages to get her out of her day clothes and into her pyjamas. 

“I will take Lucy and put her to bed, while I’m doing that you two fill out your journals for the day.” Faraday calmly tells them once Citra has Lucy changed, glancing at his watch to check the time. It’s probably a bit late for a 1 and a half year old, but one late night won’t do her any harm. 

Lucy happily allows Scythe Faraday to pick her up and carry her down the hallway. He pulls back the covers on his bed and carefully and gently lays Lucy down in the middle of the bed, before tucking the covers around her little body. He gives her a smile and runs a hand over her soft dark hair. 

“Goodnight little one, you’ll be back with your family tomorrow, where you belong.” He quietly says. Lucy simply grins.

Just as Faraday reaches the doorway to leave the room, he hears a small voice protesting. 

“No!” Lucy loudly says. “Stay!” 

Scythe Faraday turns back around, and instantly knows he can’t deny this child the simple comfort of having someone by her side while she falls asleep, afterall it’s his fault she isn’t with her mother tonight, nor will she ever be again. 

“You know how to tug at an old man’s heart strings, don’t you little one?” Faraday lightly says, closing the door behind him and taking a seat on the bed again. 

“Story!” Lucy exclaims.

“A story eh?” Faraday quietly asks. “Well let me see now, I’m not a very creative man. Well, how about I tell you a very secret story, hm? One that very few people have ever heard.” Lucy’s eyes widen with intrigue and she nods. So for the next 10 or so minutes, in a hushed and low voice, Scythe Faraday tells Lucy about he and Scythe Curie’s love and relationship, how to this day he is utterly head over heels in love with Marie, how those 7 years with her were the very best of his life and how he still has hopes that one day they will be able to be together again, get married, have children, and mostly importantly not have to hide their love or worry about being found out and punished. 

By the time Scythe Faraday has finished his story, Lucy’s eyes have fluttered closed and her chest is rising and falling steadily, as she sleeps peacefully, holding onto her stuffed toy. 

Faraday stays where he is for a few minutes, watching Lucy and thinking how different his life could be had he not chosen to be a Scythe. He could be sitting with his own child right now, not the child of a woman he gleaned. It brings him both joy and great pain to think of the child he and Marie could have had, that they both would have loved to have and wanted so very much, but knew was not an option. Perhaps someday. 

Scythe Faraday sighs lightly and brushes Lucy’s hair out of her eyes and softly strokes her flushed cheek. After a few seconds, he carefully eases himself off the bed and quietly leaves the room, leaving the light on and the door cracked open. 

Soon after Faraday comes downstairs from putting Lucy to bed, Citra and Rowan retire to their rooms for the evening, and not long after that Faraday puts this emotional day behind him, and settles into sleep on the sofa. 

The night morning, Scythe Faraday wakes at persciley 7:00 A.M., as he always does. He wastes no time in putting the spare blankets and pillows back into the cupboard he usually keeps them in, before gathering up his robe and underclothes and heading to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Once he is dressed and presentable, he makes his way down the hall and to his room, to check on Lucy and see if she is awake.

Sure enough, the moment he steps into the room he is greeted by Lucy’s broad smile, as she sits up in the bed, the covers pooling around her. 

“Good morning little one.” Scythe Faraday quietly says in a joyful tone, lifting Lucy from the bed and settling her on his hip. “You’re an early riser too, hm? Come on then, you can help me wake Citra and Rowan, teenagers, they would sleep all day if I let them.” 

They go to Rowan’s room first, where the door is already open. (Rowan never sleeps with his door closed, a habit from when he would have to leave his door open at home so his younger siblings could come into his room in the middle of the night when they got lonely and frightened.) 

Scythe Faraday sets Lucy down in the doorway and quietly says 

“Go on, go wake Rowan.” 

Lucy wastes no time in darting into the room, clambering onto Rowan’s bed and jumping on top of him, which instantly wakes Rowan. 

“What the hell?” He grumbles, lifting his head from the pillow and blocking his eyes from the bright sunlight with his arm. Scythe Faraday smiply grins, from the doorway. 

“Good morning Rowan, I hope you enjoyed your extra 10 minutes of sleep. It’s your turn to make breakfast this morning.” Faraday tells him. 

Rowan groans but pushes himself up further in the bed. 

“Okay but I can’t actually get up, there’s kind of a toddler on top of me, ow!” He exclaims, as Lucy jumps on him once again, elbowing him squarely in the ribs this time. 

“Come on Lucy, let’s leave Rowan to wake up a bit more while we wake Citra.” Faraday calmly says, holding his hand out to the little girl, who instantly runs back to him.

They wake Citra in much the same way, leaving her to dress and wake up a bit more, while they go down to the kitchen.

Breakfast is simple but messy, and after that there is only an hour and a half left before Alex arrives to collect Lucy. 

During that hour, Lucy is happy to sit at the table in the study den with Citra and Rowan, scribbling on a piece of paper, while Faraday gives the two teens a lesson on human anatomy, choosing not to go into the darker stuff such as gleaning methods, with a toddler in the room.

An hour later, just as they are finishing up the lesson, there is a knock on the door. 

“That must be Ms. Summers.” Faraday calmly says. “Stay here while I make sure.”

When he answers the door, he is met by a tall, willowy woman with tanned skin and short dark red hair that is combed over to one side. She is wearing a green hoodie underneath a black jacket, paired with dark jeans and boots. 

“Hello.” Faraday calmly says. “Ms. Alex Summers?” Alex nods. 

“Yes, Your Honor.” She quietly says. 

“Please, come in.” Scythe Faraday gestures for her to step into the house.

“Thank you, Your Honor, so much. For looking after Lucy last night and this morning, it means so much to me, to know that Lucy was in the safest hands possible.” Alex says in a tighty and breathy tone. 

“No need for thanks, Ms. Summers, it was the very least I could do after taking Lucy’s mother from her. Would you like to speak in private for a moment?” Faraday offers. Alex nods. 

“Yes please, Your Honor, thank you.”

Faraday instructs Citra and Rowan to take Lucy out back for a bit so he and Alex can talk privately. 

“It was nice having a baby around the last few hours, she really brightened up the place.” Citra quietly comments to Rowan, as Lucy sits between them in the grass, playing with her toys.

“Yeah she does. If you don’t get ordained, do you think you’ll ever have kids?” Rowan quietly asks. Citra shrugs. 

“I donno, maybe, I’m not opposed to it but it’s not a huge dream of mine or anything, you?” 

“Probably, maybe not though, I don’t know if anyone would want to have kids with me. My friend Tyger though, I think he’s slept with every girl in the Mid-Merica, I’m surprised no one’s showed up pregnant or with a kid yet, claiming it’s his.” 

They laugh, and continue to talk about everything and anything for another twenty minutes or so, before Scythe Faraday calls them back in to give Lucy to her Aunt.

They’re sad to see little Lucy go, but they’re glad they helped however little they could, and that Lucy is going to have a long and happy life with her Aunt, now. 

They say their goodbyes, waving off Lucy and Alex until their car disappears out of sight. 

One they can no longer see the car, Scythe Faraday closes the door and turns to his two apprentices. 

“You gonna miss her?” Rowan quietly asks. “You know, since you don’t have any kids of your own?” 

In a rare moment of fondness for the two children standing in front of him, Scythe Faraday smiles places a hand on each ot their shoulders. 

“I have you two, don’t I?” 


End file.
